1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an automatic page-turning device, and more particularly is directed to a page-turning device adapted to be employed in an optical reader system, a telecopier machine, a copier machine, a printing apparatus and the like, for automatically turning the pages of a "book" which, in this specification, means any collection of stacked pages fastened together along one edge by bonding, clamping, stapling or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A known automatic page-turning device, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-208300, published Dec. 21, 1982, employs a carrier roller having a sticky or tacky peripheral surface to which a page of a book to be turned is made to adhere. A stripper member is associated with the carrier roller for stripping the page from the tacky peripheral surface after the page has been turned. In this known page-turning device, some paper fibers from the turned pages continue to adhere to the tacky peripheral surface of the carrier roller. Such paper fibers build up on the roller surface and gradually reduce the tackiness thereof so that the efficiency of the page-turning device is degraded. Furthermore, in this prior art device, the next page, that is, the page following the one being turned, is exposed only after a guide roller grasping the page being turned passes the central juncture of all pages hereinafter referred to as "the spine" of the book. Therefore, until the guide roller of the page-turning device passes the spine of the book, an associated copier, telecopier, optical reader system or printer cannot initiate the reading of the next page. This delay in initiating the reading of the next page significantly lowers the overall efficiency of the known page-turning device and associated copier, telecopier, optical reader system or printer.